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Thursday, 28 February 2013

Confused Rogue (working title) is a game prototype I made over the past two days. I was inspired by Roguelike games, stripped the idea down to 1D movement, übersimplified the mechanics, and added just a dash of Glitch Tank's randomised deck of moves.

The aim of the game is to get to the exit on the far right, pushing through neverending waves of barbarians as you go. But your set of available moves is shuffled (that's the confusion part!) and each time you choose one a random new one takes its place. Losing all your hearts or getting trapped at the left side of the screen results in game over.

I'm quite pleased with the overall concept (even if it does steal shamelessly from Glitch Tank) but there are some quite clear flaws in its design.

Randomised deck of moves has no smart filter, so you can end up with 3 of the same. While this has its advantages (discouraging being picky) it is a non-choice for the player.

The randomised enemy spawning can throw a line of adjacent barbarians, which is impossible to defeat without taking damage.

As Michael Brough pointed out on Twitter, it lacks potential for mid-to-long-term strategy. The ability to charge up moves may rectify this.

I'm going to shelve development of this prototype for now and crack on with my main project, Luminesca. That's not to say I won't return to it in the future. I'd like to add more complexities and aesthetic fluff. I think a competitive 'race mode' akin to Puzzle Fighter could work well.

It's been a fun experiment though and I learned a few things about rapid prototyping. Give the game a try and let me know what you think!